MENTOR partners with U.S. Department of Education to launch Mentoring Mindsets Initiative
by Andrew Catanzariti, ATT Aspire AmeriCorps VISTA
Today, MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership (MENTOR) participated in a virtual event hosted by the U.S. Department of Education to discuss a new effort aimed at helping students achieve academic success and promote increased opportunities for America’s young people.
In coordination with City Year, Stanford University’s PERTS Lab and the Raikes Foundation, the Mentoring Mindsets Initiative will help expand the field’s collective knowledge about effective mentoring practices, and build on over $100 million invested in social and behavioral applied research by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.
As part of this initiative, MENTOR and its partner organizations will work to create a Growth Mindset Toolkit for Mentors.
Scheduled for release in January 2016 as part of the Mentoring Mindsets Initiative, the toolkit will allow mentors to help their mentees build and expand upon learning mindsets and skills necessary to succeed in school or at work.
Following pilot implementation at several City Year sites throughout the country, MENTOR and its partner organizations will conduct research to help expand what is known about academic motivation as it relates to the role of mentors in the lives of young people.
Broader implementation of the Growth Mindset Toolkit for Mentors may follow, pending successful pilot implementation and continued support.
As trusted adults and peers in students’ lives, mentors can play a key role in helping young people become creative and resourceful learners. By supplying mentors with new tools to support their work, MENTOR aims to help committed adults become even more effective champions for young people.
Senior Advisor Delegated Duties of Deputy Secretary of Education Dr. John B. King, Jr., who also participated in the event, called the Mentoring Mindsets Initiative an exciting new step for the Department.
“In recent years, the field of mentoring has grown across the country, and we have also learned more about how to better integrate mentors’ efforts into schools’ efforts, King said.
“I’m thrilled to continue to work with our partners to do just that by empowering students with learning mindsets and skills,” he added.
The Mentoring Mindsets Initiative is in alignment with MENTOR’s work supporting President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative, a public, private and philanthropic effort to support boys and young men of color in reaching their full potential.